ADMINISTRATORS have made 76 workers redundant at a pizza manufacturer in North Wales.

ADMINISTRATORS have made 76 workers redundant at a pizza manufacturer in North Wales.

The lay-offs come as administrators from Duff & Phelps try to find a buyer for Paramount Foods, which employs 312 people on the Deeside Industrial Park and another 138 in Salford, Greater Manchester.

In a statement today the administrators said they were making 118 staff redundant across the business as a whole.

David Whitehouse, Partner, Duff & Phelps, said: “On appointment and as a consequence of the Company’s insolvency, the Joint Administrators suspended operations whilst urgent discussions were held with key customers and parties who may be interested in acquiring some or all of the business.

“As a result of those conversations with the positive support we have received from key customers, the Company has resumed trading with the aim of securing an on-going trade sale of the business and its assets.

“Regrettably a number of redundancies were required in order to provide the opportunity to continue to trade the business in the short term,”

The company, which is one of the largest manufacturers of frozen and chilled pizzas in the UK, suffered a major blow at the end of August when it lost a crucial contract with supermarket giant Morrisons. That accounted for about 40% of the firm’s turnover. It also has contracts with Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco and Weight Watchers.

Alyn and Deeside MP Mark Tami has expressed concern for the factory’s future. “It’s extremely worrying because if a buyer can’t be found then we could lose another 300 jobs from the area,” he said.